Comparison of the WISC-R and Woodcock-Johnson tests of cognitive ability

The relationship between the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJTCA) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children-Revised (WISC-R) was investigated in a referral sample of 52 elementary aged students. The WJTCA and WISC-R provided comparable ability estimates as reflected by a .74 correlation between the respective Full Scale scores and no significant (.05 level) mean difference (WJTCA Broad Cognitive Ability mean = 97.1, WISC-R Full Scale mean = 96.8). The comparability of the WJTCA/WISC-R global ability estimates is contrary to lower WJTCA scores found in recent studies with learning disabled students, with the current findings supporting the criticism of those studies as advanced by the author of the WJTCA.     

Personal or environmental causes of happiness: a longitudinal analysis

The author analyzed an integrative model of happiness, which incorporated personal factors (demographics, extraversion, neuroticism, and locus of control) and environmental factors (life events and social support), using a longitudinal data set. A secondary purpose was to clarify the relationship between overall happiness and life satisfaction. Using systematic random sampling, 581 residents of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, completed structured questionnaires at Time 1; among them, 105 returned valid questionnaires 2.5 years later, at Time 2. Longitudinal analysis indicated moderate stability of the subjective well-being (SWB) measures. More importantly, when both the baseline SWB levels and personality traits were statistically controlled, social support still predicted overall happiness, and positive life events predicted life satisfaction. Furthermore, there was a consistently strong bidirectional relationship between overall happiness and life satisfaction.     

A Risk-Amplification Model of Victimization and Depressive Symptoms Among Runaway and Homeless Adolescents

This report is an examination of a theoretical model of risk amplification within a sample of 255 homeless and runaway adolescents. The young people were interviewed on the streets and in shelters in urban centers of four Midwestern states. Separate models were examined for males (n = 102) and females (n = 153). Results indicated that street experiences such as affiliation with deviant peers, deviant subsistence strategies, risky sexual behaviors, and drug and/or alcohol use amplified the effects of early family abuse on victimization and depressive symptoms for young women. These street adaptations significantly increased the likelihood of serious victimization over and above the effects of early family history for both young men and women. Similarly, street behaviors and experiences increased the likelihood of depressive symptoms for young women over the effects of early family abuse, but not for young men. The risk-amplification model from the life course theoretical perspective is discussed as an example of the cumulative continuity of maladaptive behaviors.     

Additional Evidence of Attitudinal Influences in Performance Appraisal

The attitudes of twenty-nine managers toward performance appraisal and toward their organization were used to predict differences in mean ratings and measures of discrimination among ratees and performance dimensions. Substantial multiple correlations were obtained for all three dependent variables (between 32 and 46% of the variance in each measure was explained), and several individual correlations were statistically significant. Raters who showed low levels of confidence in the appraisal system, high levels of discomfort, or high levels of instrumental commitment were more likely to provide ratings that were unusually high or that did not discriminate well among ratees and/or dimensions. Raters who showed higher levels of attitudinal commitment or who perceived more risks associated with distorting ratings tended to provide lower ratings and to discriminate among ratees and/or dimensions.     

Transgenic Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Modulates a Developing Cerebellar Inhibitory Synapse

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been shown to promote synapse formation and maturation in neurons of many brain regions, including inhibitory synapses. In the cerebellum, the Golgi cell-granule cell GABAergic synaptic responses undergo developmental transition from slow-decaying to fast-decaying kinetics, which parallels a developmental increase of GABA_A receptor α6 subunit expression in the cerebellar granule cells. In culture, BDNF accelerates the expression of GABA_A receptor α6 subunit expression in granule cells. Here we examined synaptic GABA_A response kinetics in BDNF transgenic mice. The mutant mouse, which carries a BDNF transgene driven by a β-actin promoter, overexpresses BDNF (two- to fivefold increase compared with wild types) in all brain regions. Recordings of the spontaneous GABA_A responses indicate that the decay time constant of the GABAergic responses decreases during early postnatal development; this transition is accelerated in the BDNF transgenic mouse. The amplitude of the spontaneous GABA_A responses was also larger in the transgenic mouse than in the wild-type mouse. However, the frequency of the spontaneous GABA_A responses were not different between the two groups. Our results suggest that BDNF may modulate GABAergic synapse maturation in the cerebellum.     

爬行与婴儿共同注意能力的发展

本研究考察了８～１１个月婴儿共同注意能力的发展趋势以及爬行与其发展的关系。结果表明：１）一岁以内的婴儿在共同注意时有仅跟视相同方向与准确定位他人注视点两种不同水平的表现,这两种表现具有不同的发展趋势;２）影响婴儿共同注意时仅跟视相同方向水平发展的主要因素是婴儿的年龄,爬行时间的效应不显著;３）对婴儿准确定位的发展而言,影响其发展的重要因素是婴儿的爬行而不是婴儿的年龄。     

Second-order reversed phi

In a first-order reversed-phi motion stimulus (Anstis, 1970), the black-white contrast of successive frames is reversed, and the direction of apparent motion may, under some conditions, appear to be reversed. It is demonstrated here that, for many classes of stimuli, this reversal is a mathematical property of the stimuli themselves, and the real problem is in perceiving forward motion, which involves the second- or third-order motion systems or both. Three classes of novel second-order reversed-phi stimuli (contrast, spatial frequency, and flicker modulation) that are invisible to first-order motion analysis were constructed. In these stimuli, the salient stimulus features move in theforward (feature displacement) direction, but the second-order motion energy model predicts motion in thereversed direction. In peripheral vision, for all stimulus types and all temporal frequencies, all the observers saw only the reversed-phi direction of motion. In central vision, the observers also perceived reversed motion at temporal frequencies above about 4 Hz, but they perceived movement in the forward direction at lower temporal frequencies. Since all of these stimuli are invisible to first-order motion, these results indicate that the second-order reversed-phi stimuli activate two subsequent competing motion mech-anisms, both of which involve an initial stage of texture grabbing (spatiotemporal filtering, followed by fullwave rectification). The second-order motion system then applies a Reichardt detector (or equiva-lently, motion energy analysis) directly to this signal and arrives at the reversed-phi direction. The third-order system marks the location of features that differ from the background (the figure) in a salience map and computes motion in the forward direction from the changes in the spatiotemporal location of these marks. The second-order system’s report of reversed movement dominates in peripheral vision and in central vision at higher temporal frequencies, because it has better spatial and temporal resolu-tion than the third-order system, which has a cutoff frequency of 3–4 Hz (Lu & Sperling, 1995b). In cen-tral vision, below 3–4 Hz, the third-order system’s report of resolvable forward movement of something salient (the figure) dominates the second-order system’s report of texture contrast movement.     

Multiple reinforcement contingencies to reduce aggression,self-injury and dysfunctional verbal behaviors in an adult who is sensory impaired

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) have been effective techniques in reducing maladaptive behaviors in therapeutic settings. Reported studies of these reinforcement-based procedures indicate that they are usually implemented in isolation, targeting only a single behavior or class of behaviors. In this study, multiple DRO and DRL contingencies were utilized concurrently in reducing two distinct classes of behaviors with a 26 year-old blind man with moderate retardation. One class of behaviors included socially inappropriate verbalizations, while the other included aggressive, self-injurious and environmentally destructive behaviors. Distinct contingencies were established according to the functions of the targeted behaviors and their severity and separate schedules of reinforcement were derived from baseline frequencies. Over a period of 20 months, the differential reinforcement interventions resulted in rapid reduction of behaviors in both classes to near-zero rates and frequencies were maintained at this low level while contingency schedules were systematically lengthened. Collateral effects are discussed including performance in functional academics and participation in community integration activities.     

The Influence of Observed Alcohol Consumption on Perceptions of Initiation of Sexual Activity in a College Dating Situation

Corcoran and Bell (1990) found differences between men and women's expectancies for the likelihood of sexual intercourse on a first date depending on how much the other had to drink. The present study examined the subjects' perceptions of likelihood of male and female initiation of sexual intercourse in a story in which the drinking of male or female characters was varied. Subjects read a story of a first date in which one character. either the male or female, consumed a couple of cocktails. The other character either "also had a couple of cocktails.""drank soft drinks," or "became slightly intoxicated." A manipulation check showed that the subjects were responding to story variables in their ratings of characters intoxication. Men were perceived to be more likely than women to initiate intercourse across all drinking conditions, although results indicate that all subjects believed that sexual activity was more likely to be initiated when story characters consumed alcohol rather than soft drinks. These results further demonstrated that this expectancy for initiation of sex appears to be triggered by the presence of alcohol and did not significantly increase for a higher dose of alcohol. More research is necessary to clarify the role of alcohol in sexuality among adolescents and young adults.